Identificació de les vocals tòniques del català.

Abstract

This research develops a method for vowel identification capable of controlling individual variation. It is grounded on the relation between distinctive features and the acoustic distance of vowel formants, which is obtained through a logarithmic scale –which is how the auditory system perceives sound— and not though a lineal scale. The main innovation concerns the unit of measure: relative frequency. The method was initially applied to the tonic vocalic system of Central Catalan, but it was also tested against the vocalic system of American English for comparative purposes. Finally, a perception test was conducted of synthesized vowels following the parameters of relative frequency for each vowel class which were obtained from the identification method.